Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #194255 in DVD
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: German, English, French, Italian, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, French, German, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, Icelandic, Portuguese, Greek, Spanish, Italian

Amazon.com essential video
This subtle, existential character study of an emotionally distant outcast (Nicholson) forced to confront his past failures remains an intimate cornerstone of American '70s cinema. Written and directed with remarkable restraint by Bob Rafelson, the film is the result of a short-lived partnership between the filmmaker and Nicholson--the first was the zany formalist exercise, Head, while the equally impressive King of Marvin Gardens followed Five Easy Pieces. Quiet and full of long, controlled takes, this film draws its strength from the acutely detailed, nonjudgmental observations of its complex protagonist, Robert Dupea--an extremely crass and frustrated oil worker, and failed child pianist hiding from his past in Texas. Dupea spends his life drinking beer and sleeping with (and cheating on) his annoying but adoring Tammy Wynette-wannabe girlfriend, but when he learns that his father is dying in Washington State, he leaves. After the film transforms into a spirited road movie, and arrives at the eccentric upper-class Dupea family mansion, it becomes apparent that leaving is what Dupea does best--from his problems, fears, and those who love him. Nicholson gives a difficult yet masterful performance in an unlikable role, one that's full of ambiguity and requires violent shifts in acting style. Several sequences--such as his stopping traffic to play piano, or his famous verbal duels with a cranky waitress over a chicken-salad sandwich--are Nicholson landmarks. Yet, it's the quieter moments, when Dupea tries miserably to communicate and reconcile with his dying father, where the actor shows his real talent--and by extension, shows us the wounded little boy that lurks in the shell of the man Dupea has become. --Dave McCoy

Customer Reviews

Appeals to the little bit of alienation that's in all of us
Nominated for four Academy Awards, this 1970 film stars Jack Nicholson as Robert Dupea, a creative and alienated drifter who once held the promise of being a serious classical concert pianist. When we meet him, though, he's working on an oil rig, drinking, gambling, chasing women and treating his girlfriend, Rayette, badly. Karen Black plays Rayette, a loving and attractive, but not very intelligent, waitress who yearns to be a country western singer. And the sound track by Tammy Wynette, including "Stand By Your Man" are a contrast to the pieces by Mozart and Chopin that we hear later, when Nicholson visits his dying father in the family's secluded and upscale dwelling. There, he enters into an impossible relationship with his brother's sophisticated girlfriend played by Susan Anspach.

The film moves fast and held my interest, with a wide variety of episodes to further deepen the intensity of the Nicholson character. There's a nude scene with Sally Struthers as one of Nicholson's many women. There's a scene in a diner with a waitress where Nicholson tries to place an order for items not on the menu. There's a scene where he picks up two lesbian hitchhikers, who are planning on moving to Alaska. There's a scene with Nicholson's sister, played by Lois Smith, in a recording studio where she is playing classical music and treated with disrespect and contempt by the staff. And there's a scene where Nicholson defends his girlfriend, Rayette, against upper class snobbery.

This is a film that works as well today as it did in the 1970s. But it must have especially timely then and viewed as a cry for independence and freedom as the alienated Nicholson just keeps moving on. The screenplay by Carole Eastman, under the direction of Bob Rafelson, is excellent. And there's something about the story that makes us realize that there's a little bit of the Jack Nicholson character in all of us. Recommended.

Jack's best - and that's saying a lot
Jack Nicholson is a wonderful actor, but since the early 1970s, virtually all of his performances have been variations of Jack playing Jack. This is not to say that he has not been terrific doing this, but there is a distinct impression that there hasn't been much of a stretch in his acting since Chinatown. Not so with Five Easy Pieces - Nicholson completely loses himself in the character of Bobby Dupee, and gives what is arguably his best performance ever. What's more, the film, which opened in 1970, depicts better than any other film the alienation of the generation of the late 1960s-early 1970s. Nicholson's Bobby Dupee is a talented classical musician who comes from a family of talented classical musicians. He has, however, chosen to deny his past by living (one might almost say "hiding") with his girl friend, Rayette (a terrific Karen Black) among blue collar workers. The bulk of the film centers on Bobby's return home to visit his father, who has suffered a stroke, and the interaction of Bobby (and Rayette) with various members of the household. Nicholson's acting talent was never more apparent than in the scene where he is out walking with his wheel-chair bound father and tries to explain why he has chosen the path he has taken. The scene has an improvisational quality, and Nicholson is both natural and moving. It is a moment that can stand with anything he has done since.

Jack's Best Work
I can't remember when I saw this one on the big screen. It was not long after Easy Rider and we had the idea that this Jack Nicholson had something to say to our 60's-70's counter-culture. He did have something to say with some of the sharpest acting I had ever seen. He out-classed the James Dean's and Marlon Brando's, but not with ease. Jack was workin' hard, switching from depressed concert pianist to hillbilly good time dude to misunderstood Romeo in five-minute intervals. No, make that changeable temperament every five seconds, truly an artistic milestone. Throw in an equally magnificent portrayal by Karen Black, sexy and hillbilly; Jessica Simpson, eat your heart out, and you have the couple of the year, 1970.

Jack's father is one of those evil patriarch's that hurt their kids bad, pushing them to greatness without an ounce of love. Consequently, the siblings are brilliant and eccentric. The daughter is a frumpy dope. The older son is a violinist with a neck injury, and then there's handsome Jack, shiftless, moving from bed to bed, crossing the country, a boozing bum. Back in the Vietnam years there was an examination of bourgeois life. Did we have to get a job and get married? Was everyone in a particular cubbyhole, mail in the funeral? Hence, we had the counter-culture, drugs, long haired hippies, sexual openness, and shiftless lifestyles. Bob Rafelson's film gives you that, but mercifully, with subtly. That last scene at the gas station says it all. I think directors would be hard pressed to sum up a film's theme so effectively with so little noise - amazing.